Patterning device for knitting machines



Nov. 21, 1961 w. BRAM PATTERNING DEVICE FOR KNITTING MACHINES Filed June 8, 1960 United States 3,009,340 PATTERNING DEVICE FOR KNITTING MACHINE Walter Bram, Dietikon, Zurich, Switzerland, assignor to Paliz-Holding A.G., Zug, Switzerland Filed June 8, 1960, Ser. No. 34,735 Claims priority, application Switzerland June 17, 1959 7 Claims. (Cl. 66-75) The present invention relates to new and useful improvements in knitting machines, and more particularly relates to a patterning device for engaging butts of needles and controlling the path of movement of such needles through a needle bed.

in knitting machines, and particularly in hand-operated knitting machines, it is frequently necessary, in order to produce patterns and in particular so-called jacquard pa terns, to alternately move some of the knitting needles into a rest position with the knitting then being effected only with the remaining needles. Thereafter, the last mentioned needles in their turn are brought into a rest position and the needles, which up to then were excluded from the knitting process, are now used for the knitting.

In the case of larger knitting machines, this changing of a part of the needles from the rest position into the operating position and vice versa is eil'ected by the known jacquard devices with jacquard cards, jacks, auxiliary cam boxes, etc. In the case of simple knitting machines, and in particular in the case of hand-knitting machines, the provision of these complicated and costly jacquard devices does not pay for itself, aside from the fact that the operation would be much too cumbersome.

In general, recourse has been had heretofore with these simpler knitting machines and hand knitting machines to combs corresponding to the corresponding patterns, and with which one part of the needles is pushed by hand out of the rest position into the operating position and thereupon, in a following knitting operation, after all the needles are again in their rest position, the other part of the needles is brought by means of a complementary comb out of the rest position into the operating position.

Aside from these simple accessories, there have also been proposed slides or a kind of auxiliary cam boxes by the displacement of which along the needle bed, i.e., transverse to the direction of movement of the needles, this change in position of the needles from rest position into operating position and vice versa could be elfected. The patterning devices of this known type have two feed channels for the needle butts which enter into a crossing space and two removal channels for the nee-die butts which extend away from the crossing space, each feed channel together with a removal channel associated wit it, determined in part one of two intersecting paths for the needle butts. In this connection, spring flaps were provided in order to assure the guiding of the needle butts on the correct path at the intersection place or crossing space, the undesired removal channel being in each case closed by said flaps.

This manner of assuring the correct guiding of the needle butts in the crossing space has certain very essential disadvantages. For example, spring flaps had to be at least sufficiently long to close off completely the undesired removal channel. This absolutely. necessary length its turn made a correspondingly large closing path of the flaps necessary. if then needle butts which were rapidly following each other approached the crossing space on different paths, it was absolutely necessary to open the removal channel which had been closed so as to preserve the path of the preceding needle butt with suf icient rapidity that the next needle butt could enter said removal channel. However, this was possible, in view of the rela- 3,009,340 Patented Nov. 21, 1961 tively long closure path, only by means of very strong flap springs which in their turn naturally again oppose such resistance to the needle butts that the movement of the slide could be effected only with a great expenditure of force. If it were desired to avoid this disadvantage, this could be done only by the provision of weaker springs, which, however, caused too slow a return of the flaps so that upon the arrival of the following needle on the other path, the removal channel in question could not be opened in due time, thereby resulting in erroneous guidmgs.

The object of the present invention is to avoid these disadvantages, by providing a patterning device for knitting machines of the aforementioned type in which the correct guiding of the needle butts can definitely be assured without a great expenditure of force. The patterning device, in accordance with the present invention, is characterized by the fact that an accelerating device which acts toward the crossing space is provided at the outlet of one of t e feed channels.

Two embodiments of the subject matter of the invention are shown by way of example in the drawing, in

. which:

FIG. 1 is a bottom view of a first embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a similar view of a second embodiment, and

FIG. 3 is a section taken on the line IIIIII of FIG. 2.

The device, in accordance with FIG. 1, is particularly well suited for use in hand-knitting apparatus and has a slide plate or carriage 1 having two guides 2 which are arranged along its edge and permit movement of the slide over the needle bed at right angles to the direction of movement of the needles. The slide furthermore has three main needle cams 3, 4- and 5, as well as two auxiliary needle cams 6 and 7, which needle cams form the entrance channels 9 and 11 entering into the crossing space 8 as well as the exit channels 10 and 12 extending from a needle path intersection area 8 for the needle butts (not shown), the movement of the slide being in the direction indicated by the arrow 13.

Each entrance channel together with the exit channel associated with it determines in part one of the two paths which intersect in the needle path intersection area 8 to which the needle butts are to be guided. Thus in the example shown, there is associated with the entrance channel 9 the exit channel ill and these channels together with the exception of the passage in the crossing space, determine the path 14, while the exit channel 12 is associated with the entrance channel 11 for the partial determination of the path 15. Of these two paths, the path 14- extends parallel in the needle path intersection area to the guides 2 i.e., parallel to the direction of movement of the slide while the path 15', which is parallel to the path 14 in the region of the entrance channels, extends at a right angle to the path 14 in the needle path intersection area and intersects the path 14.

The end of the entrance channel 11 is closed by the oblique surface 16a of the driving block 16 which is urged by springs perpendicularly to the entrance channel 11. The driving block 16 is under the action of the spring 17 which is mounted in a bore in a block 18 connected rigidly with slide plate 1 and the "preliminary tension of which canbe adjusted by a screw 19. Two guide pins 21 are carried by the block 16 and are slidably mounted in boreholes 2t The pins serve for guiding the spring-actuated drive block 16 which together with the auxiliary needle cam 6 forms an accelerating device developed as a throwing device and active in direction toward the needle path intersection area for the needle butts which are to move through the feed channel 11 toward the needle path intersection area 8.

In the rest position of the spring actuated drive block 16 shown,

the shoulder 16b of the latter rests against the end of the auxiliary needle cam 6. Furthermore this support could also take place on some other stationary part of the slide, in which connection it is also possible for the entrance channel 11 not to be completely closed off but merely to be narrowed by the oblique surface 16a to such an extent that needle butts move the slide block 16 in opposition to the spring pressure and thus cook it. This will be necessary if the needle butts are so wide that the drive block 16 would require too long a time to move over the distance of the needle butt width. If the oblique surface 16a fully closes the entrance channel 11, the danger would exist that the drive block 16 upon the advance of the next needle butt into the region of the surface 16a would not yet have returned into the initial position. The drive block can, of course, also have a different shape, for instance it may be developed resiliently in order to reduce the mass.

On the side of the needle path intersection area 8 opposite the drive block 16, there is arranged a spring intercepting plate 22 having a beveled edge 22a facing the spring driven block 16 which plate extends laterally into the exit channel 12. The edge of the auxiliary needle cam 7 which separates the exit channed 12 from the removal channel 10 is protected against impacts of the needle butts by a resilient needle deflector 7a.

The needle deflector 7a is not for the purpose of guiding the needle butts but merely to prevent their striking against the edge.

The purpose of the apparatus shown is to effect the movement of the one part of the needles from the rest position into an operating position and the other part in reverse direction and to make certain of the corresponding movement of the needle butts, particularly in the needle path intersection area, in which connection it is assumed in the embodiment shown in the drawing that when the needle butts are at the height 23, the corresponding needles are in their rest position while the butts of the corresponding working needles must be shifted to the height 24. As can be noted from the drawing, the path 14 starts at the height of the rest position and terminates at the height of the operating position, while the opposite is true of the path 15. The path 14 accordingly serves to push a part of the needles into the operating position and the path 15 serves for the return of the other part of the needles into the rest position.

A needle proceeding along the path 14 enters, corresponding to the direction of movement 13 of the slide, into the entrance channel 9, leaves it without change of direction, crosses over through the needle path intersection area 8 and enters the exit channel 10 in which the needle is pushed forward into the operating position by the auxiliary needle cam 7 and leaves the exit channel 10 at height 24. In this connection it should be particularly noted that this path 14 is always completely open so that the movement of the needle butts is in no way prevented by flaps or switches of any type. Furthermore, there are not present any flaps which would first have to be swung back in order to free the path.

The butts of the needles present in operating position which enter through the entrance channel 11 at the end of this entrance channel strike against the oblique surface 16a, as a result of which the spring drive block 16 lifted off from its support, the auxiliary needle cam 6, against the action of the spring 17, thus releasing the channel outlet. The supporting of the drive block 16 is now taken over for a short time by the needle butt in question, namely until the latter has reached the end of the auxiliary needle cam 6 and thus emerges from the entrance channel 11. At this moment, the drive block 16 is robbed of its support to that it moves rapidly forward under the action of the spring 17 and thus slings the needle butt at right angles to the path 14 and beyond same against the resilient intercepting plate 22 where the needle butt in question is resiliently intercepted. The

spring action of this intercepting plate must of course be so dimensioned that it attenuates the impact of the impinging needle butt and does not throw it back again, for instance, to such an extent that it misses the inlet of the exit channel 12. The needle butts pass from the intercepting plate into the exit channel 12 which they leave at the height 23 which corresponds to the rest position of the needles in question. The resilient intercepting plate provided in the examples shown in the drawing could be replaced by any other device which destroys the energy of the impinging needle butt. Thus instead of the intercepting plate there could be used a bumper of a material of only slight elasticity such as sponge rubber or the like.

From the arrangement described, it results that the slinging device or the drive block 16 never extends into the path 14 and thus there is no danger that the needle butts moving along this path will be disturbed in their movement.

The embodiment showns in FIGS. 2. and 3 is based on the same arrangement of the entrance and exit channels 9-12 for the needle butts, as well as of the crossing space 8. While, however, in the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 the slinging device was in each case actuated by the needle butt emerging from the entrance channel 11, this actuation is now effected independently of said needle butts. Again there is provided a guided drive block 16 which is preferably placed under tension by a spring 17 and the free end of which extends into the outlet of the entrance channel 11. The drive block 16 is provided on its lower side, however, with a driving pin 16c which is arranged in the path of the teeth of a stepping wheel 25. This stepping wheel is connected via a common shaft with the pinion 26 which meshes with the transmission gear 27, the latter engaging a rack 28 which is rigidly connected to the frame of the apparatus. It would also be possible, instead of the rack 23 and the intermediate gears 26, 27 to employ an arrangement in which the stepping wheel 25 is driven by a gear which engages in the needle bed.

It results from this that upon a displacement of the carriage, the gear 27 is driven by the rack 28 and its rotation is transmitted, via the pinion 26, t0 the stepping wheel. The transmission ratio of the gearing 26/ 27 is so selected that the actuation of the drive block 16 by the stepping wheel 25 takes place in the tempo in which the individual needle guides of the needle bed come into the region of the drive block 16.

This has the result that upon the displacement of the slide in the direction indicated by the arrow 13, the drive bar is moved in the said tempo via the driving pin 160 by the teeth of the stepping wheel 25 rearward against the tension of the spring 17 and thereupon, after the engagement between the stepping wheel and the driving pin 160 has been released upon further rotation of the stepping wheel, it will move rapidly forward under the action of the spring 17 and in this connectionin the same way as in the first embodimentthrow the needle butt of the needle guide which has come into its region through the needle path intersection and 8 against the intercepting device 22.

The functional difference is that in the'first embodiment the throwing or slinging device is released only when a needle butt has reached the end of the entrance channel 11, while in the second embodiment the throwing or slinging device enters into action at a given tempo independently of whether a needle butt emerges from the channel 11 or not.

In principle, there would also be the possibility of driv ing the slinging device by a special driving motor, the speed of rotation of which would have to be dependent on the speed of displacement of the slide.

in FIGS. 2 and 3 there is furthermore shown a modification of the intercepting device, the intercepting plate 22 having a downward-bent edge 2212 which faces the crossing space. Due to this edge 22b, the intercepting plate 22 is raised elastically by the needle butt which is thrown through the needle path intersection area by the throwing device and strikes against the edge 22b so that said needle butt passes through above the intercepting plate 22 and remains caught above said intercepting plate so that it cannot move longitudinally. In this way a rapid moving back of the needle butt in question is prevented in a particularly suitable manner.

Another manner of preventing a bouncing-off of the slung needle butts is to develop the intercepting device as a strong permanent magnet which holds firm the needle butts which strike against it.

In this way it is possible to assure the crossing of the needle butts with absolute certainty without expenditure of special force even if needle butts which in rapid sequence alternately follow different paths approach the needle path intersection area.

It is obvious that the arrangements shown act in only one direction of the slide. If they are to be firmly connected with a knitting cam box, said knitting cam box would have to have two such devices which can be brought alternately into and out of active position by suitable known means.

I claim:

1. A knitting machine having at least one needle bed with guides for the needles, needles movably disposed in said guides and having each a needle butt, a patterning device movable along the needle bed, a first needle cam, a first auxiliary needle cam forming with said first needle cam a first entrance channel corresponding to a first position of the needles in their guides, a second auxiliary needle cam forming with said first needle cam a first exit channel corresponding to said first position, a second needle cam disposed on the side of said first auxiliary needle cam opposite to said first needle cam and forming with said first auxiliary needle cam a second entrance channel corresponding to a second position of the needles in their guides, a third needle cam disposed on the same side of the auxiliary needle cam as said second needle cam and forming with said second auxiliary needle cam a second exit channel corresponding to said second position, said second auxiliary needle cam having a guide edge extending obliquely to the axis of said first entrance channel for guiding the needle butts from said channel in said second exit channel, a driving device disposed at the end of said second entrance channel for driving the needle transversely to the axis of said second entrance channel, and a buffer member for resiliently stopping the needle butts of the needles driven by said device, said bulfer member having a guiding edge for guiding the needle butts in said first exit channel.

2. A knitting machine according to claim 1 in which said driving device comprises a driving block with an edge extending obliquely to said second entrance channel, a spring biasing said driving block into abutment with the internal end of said first auxiliary needle cam.

3. A knitting machine according to claim 1 in which said driving device comprises a driving block with an edge extending obliquely to said second entrance channel, a spring biasing said driving block into abutment with the internal end of said first auxiliary needle cam, guiding pins fixed to said driving block and movably disposed in guiding holes, means for adjusting the initial stress of said spring.

4. A knitting machine according to claim 1, in which said device comprises a driving block biased by a spring into a position in which it extends transversely to said second entrance channel, a pin on said driving block, a shaft, stepping wheel fixed on said shaft and cooperating with said pin for displacing said driving block against the bias of said spring, a pinion fixed on said shaft, a gear meshing with said pinion, a rack stationarily fixed relatively to said patterning device, with which said gear also meshes.

5. A knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the driving device is actuated by the needle butts.

6. A knitting machine according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the driving device is actuated in the tempo of the needle guides coming into its vicinity independently of the passage of needle butts.

7. A knitting machine according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the driving device is a spring-pretensioned block movable substantially at right angles to the feed channel in question, which block has a driver which extends into the path of a stepping wheel driven by the movement of the carriage.

FOREIGN PATENTS 415,108 Germany June 13, 1925 

